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Detoxifying Through Your Feet?

by Dr. Stephen Sinatra

Published 04/30/09

Footbaths containing electrodes that help detoxify the body? They've got to be kidding, right? Maybe yes, maybe no. They're gaining in popularity, for sure. But you have to be careful about this approach.

I've seen many fancy footbaths in the exhibit halls of numerous conferences I've attended. And I've asked lots of questions. Some, to be frank, are nothing short of scams. And I totally understand why you might be skeptical that a footbath could detox your body. I used to be just as unimpressed. But I'm beginning to change my thinking on the subject.

Can You Feel It in Your Toes?

You can imagine the numerous vendors I meet who propose that their footbath is the easiest and most effective way to detoxify the body. The concept involves, obviously, sitting with your feet in a small tub of water, with the addition of devices and solutions that are promoted as detoxifiers.

An electrode with a positive and negative charge creates a high energy complex in water to which sodium chloride (table salt, a negatively-charged ion) is added. Most vendors demonstrate this by placing your feet in the bath with the electrodes and salt. And, I must admit, things do begin to happen in that solution. Some footbath proponents claim that the highly charged water creates energy that traverses the acupuncture meridians in the feet and circulates to multiple areas of the body.

After a few minutes of the process, the water begins to change in color, usually turning an orange-yellow-brown-green-black. At this point, the promoter may claim that this color change represents your liver, other organs, lymph glands, and joints purging themselves of toxins through the bottoms of your feet. But don't be fooled by this. An honest vendor explained to me that the water changes color because of the chemical reaction going on, and would do so with or without your feet in the solution. 

My Family of Guinea Pigs

Out of curiosity, I asked my daughter, Marchann, to sit with her feet on the chair as she started her second footbath that weekend. Together we watched the water change color as the electrodes and salt were added. But, once she added her tootsies to the tub, the water changed color again, becoming darker and thicker. This was beyond just a chemical reaction. But what was really happening?

To answer this, let me take you back to an anti-aging conference I attended several years ago. I had the time to challenge a footbath purveyor named Wade whom I'd seen at earlier conferences. He wanted to demonstrate how the footbath could cause a beneficial, physiological change in the body.

His pitch regarding the detoxification benefits of the footbath sounded plausible enough-especially when backed up by the video showing a woman's live blood cell analysis before and after the bath. The dramatic videotape rolled, with real-time footage of how some of her red blood cells had been clumped together in stacks that looked like poker chips. The technical term for this is rouleaux formation, and it's an indication that the blood is thick (viscous) and may have a tendency to clot. After 30 minutes in the footbath, the re-analyzed blood showed her red blood cells flowing freely in the microscopic field with no rouleaux. But how could I be sure that the video was genuine? After all, it could have been anybody's blood.

As luck would have it that day, there was another booth (occupied by Rheologics) set up to draw blood samples and assess blood thickness. I had my blood viscosity checked, and when I received the information that my blood was on the thick side, well, I rationalized the results. After all, I'd just had the stress of traveling cross-country, then giving a lecture to a large crowd. Surely my adrenalin levels were high enough to promote a little blood clotting, a fight-or-flight mechanism to prevent bleeding. But naturally, I wasn't happy about it.

So, I was motivated to change my blood work, and there was Wade with that big confident smile of his. This was his opportunity to back up his sales pitch. I placed my feet in his hands and let him do his "thing." The experience was one I'll always remember.

Wade told me to drink a silver chloride solution he calls his "Silver Wonder," along with some other minerals. He explained to me that the ingestion of minerals, combined with the external charge produced by the electrode in the footbath would help to create a higher energy field that would facilitate the detoxification and energizing process.

I felt different after that footbath. I marched myself back to the other booth to stand in line for another viscosity check, and, lo and behold, my blood's viscosity was overwhelmingly improved. It looked more like thin red wine than thick ketchup this time. What's more, when I put my foot back into my cowboy boot, the discomfort in that bum right hip of mine was nowhere to be found. It was pretty amazing.

However, I was still skeptical, so I asked my wife Jan, as well as Dr. Graham Simpson, my co-author on Spa Medicine, to undergo the testing, too. Although I'll admit that their blood looked better than mine at the outset, re-analysis after the footbath also showed an improvement in blood viscosity scores. Now I was really hooked. I ended up buying three footbath units before I left that day.

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